The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that over 509,000 Rohingya refugees have fled into Bangladesh from Myanmar. Noting the “horrific” living conditions of the refugees, the Emergency Relief Coordinator and UNICEF’s Executive Director called for urgent funding to scale up the response.
Bangladesh
The World Food Programme (WFP) announced today that it would cut food rations by 30 per cent for the 420,000 refugees living in Dadaab and Kakuma camps in northern Kenya due to insufficient funding. WFP urgently needs $28.5 million to adequately cover the food assistance needs for the refugees over the next six months.
UNICEF in Nigeria said today that the crisis caused by the Boko Haram insurgency in north-east Nigeria has left more than 57 per cent of schools in Borno State closed as the new [school] year begins. UNICEF and partners have enrolled nearly 750,000 children and established more than 350 temporary learning spaces.
About the response to the cholera outbreak in Yemen, medicines procured by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for the treatment of 30,000 patients have been airlifted to Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, for transfer across the Red Sea to the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.
As of 25 September, two days ago, there were nearly 740,000 suspected cholera cases in Yemen and more than 2,100 associated deaths recorded, with children accounting for more than half, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Aid workers have set up 250 diarrhoea treatment centres.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that the number of Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh has surpassed 700,000, with 480,000 arriving since late August. The United Nations continues to provide aid, but the massive influx of refugees is outpacing the capacity to respond.
The number of Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar and arrived in Bangladesh in the past month has reached 436,000. Aid agencies have reached more than 80 per cent of these people with food aid and are scaling up their support.
The Americas have eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT), a disease that used to be responsible for the deaths of more than 10,000 newborns every year in the region, according to the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and UNICEF.
Only 15 countries have three essential national policies supporting families with young children, according to a new UNICEF report, “Early Moments Matter for Every Child”. They offer two years of [free] pre-primary education; breastfeeding breaks for new mothers in the first six months; and adequate parental leave.
The Secretary-General spoke at a high-level meeting on reform of the United Nations. He stressed that the true test will be measured through tangible results in the lives of the people the Organization serves — and the trust of those who support its work through their hard-earned resources.